An Outcomes Approach
in the
Health and Physical Education
Key Learning Area
Occasional paper prepared for the
Queensland School Curriculum Council
by
John Boustead
October 1999
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The aim of this paper is to describe what it means to implement an outcomes
approach in Queensland and to explore the challenges that confront teachers. To
assist in clarifying these, specific examples in the Health and Physical Education
(HPE) key learning area (KLA) will be used.
The syllabuses and support materials produced by the Queensland School
Curriculum Council, demonstrate a commitment to an outcomes approach as the
basis for designing school curriculum programs. Although this approach is not new
and parallels overseas educational trends, there is often confusion about what an
outcomes approach will mean to our planning, teaching and student learning.
Definition
The Queensland School Curriculum Council has based its outcomes approach to
syllabus design on the premise that the student learning outcomes should be clearly
identified for each of the key learning areas. The intended student learning
outcomes were written to describe what students are expected to ‘know’ and ‘do’
(Interlink, Number 11, 1998).
Other definitions of an outcomes approach to education have included:
• ‘high quality culminating demonstrations of significant learning in context’
(Spady 1994, p.18).
• ‘a brief statement of what is to be learnt’ (Hannan & Ashenden 1996, p. 3).
Perhaps a more useful definition is provided in a summary of definitions by Brady
(1996, p. 2) who described an approach that involves:
• developing clearly defined outcomes that all students must demonstrate;
• designing teaching/learning activities that assure the demonstrated
performance;
• monitoring individual student progress on the basis of demonstrated
performance;
• utilising criterion-referenced assessment both to monitor progress and to
group students;
• providing remediation for students who do not achieve the outcomes quickly
and enrichment for those who do.
The Health and Physical Education Years 1-10 Syllabus (Queensland School
Curriculum Council 1999) describes three levels of outcomes. The overall learning
outcomes of the curriculum contain elements common to all key learning areas and
collectively describe the valued attributes of a lifelong learner. A lifelong learner is:
• a knowledgeable person with deep understanding;
• a complex thinker;
• a creative person;
• an active investigator;
• an effective communicator;
• a participant in an interdependent world;
• a reflective and self-directed learner. (The Council’s syllabus, 1999, p. 2).
The outcomes highlight the uniqueness of the HPE key learning area and its
contribution to the Years 1-10 curriculum. They also provide a framework for the
conceptual strands, the practices and dispositions developed through the key
learning area, and the continuum of core learning outcomes. Through studies in the
HPE KLA, students develop the knowledge, processes, skills and attitudes necessary
to:
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•
select and use information and apply problem-solving and decision-making
strategies to:
- make informed decisions about health, physical activity and personal
development;
- evaluate their own actions and the actions of others;
• develop a strong commitment to promoting equity, acknowledging diversity
and establishing supportive environments with respect to health, physical
activity and personal development;
• reflect on and evaluate the influences of biological, social, cultural and
environmental factors on:
- their own and others’ health and personal development;
- their own attitude and others’ attitudes towards, and participation in,
physical activity;
• promote the health of themselves, others and their communities;
• accept their responsibility as individual members of a group or community to
create and maintain environments supportive of optimum health;
• develop and refine motor skills necessary for participation in physical activity,
and acquire and apply movement concepts to enhance performance;
• develop positive attitudes towards participation in regular physical activity and
an appreciation of the benefits of physical activity and of the aesthetic and
technical qualities of movement;
• enhance their own and others’ self-concept and self-esteem, and develop the
skills for creating and maintaining positive interactions and relationships.
(The Council’s syllabus 1999, p. 7)
Core learning outcomes describe what students know and can do as a result of
planned activities in the key learning area (The Council’s HPE Initial In-service
Materials 1999, p. 13). They are organised in the syllabus by conceptual strands and
in order of increasing complexity from Levels 1 to 6. Discretionary learning
outcomes are also presented in the syllabus and describe what students know and
can do beyond what is considered essential at a particular level.
Within this framework, schools are required to make decisions about what and how
to teach. These decisions will be framed by the core learning outcomes but will also
be informed by the needs of the students and the teaching/learning context. This is a
characteristic feature of an outcomes approach as described by Willis and Kissane
(1997) in that schools develop the structures and curriculums as means (not ends) to
achieving the identified key things that students should understand and be able to do
(the core learning outcomes).
Context
Willis and Kissane (1997, p. 6) state that for an education system to adopt an
outcomes approach means that the system believes that ‘there are certain things that
all students learn as a result of attending school, that it is prepared to say publicly
what these things are, and that it is prepared to be held accountable in terms of
them’. The Council’s syllabuses are a reflection of this assertion.
In Queensland the adoption of eight key learning areas (KLAs) as the framework for
syllabus development follows the development of the national curriculum statements
and profiles. Since their completion in 1993, the outcomes described in each KLA
profile have been adopted and/or adapted by each State and Territory throughout
Australia. A comparison of the Queensland syllabus core learning outcomes to the
outcomes in the national profile shows a similarity in the conceptual underpinnings of
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the KLA, the cognitive and skill demands of the levels, and the way that the learning
outcomes have been framed.
Principles and premises
One of the key concerns of teachers within an outcomes approach could be. ‘What
does it mean for me?’. One way of answering this question is to work towards a
clear understanding of the principles and premises that underpin an outcomes
approach.
Spady (1993) considers that there are four principles of an outcomes approach:
• Clarity of focus – by clearly defining the outcomes, everyone (e.g. teachers,
students and parents) has a clear understanding of the learning result.
Teachers are working towards a clearly defined ultimate purpose rather than
planning to cover the content prescribed by a work program or textbook.
• Expanded opportunity – which means that students are provided with multiple
opportunities to demonstrate what is expected. It also means that factors
such as duration, frequency and timing can be varied to suit the needs of the
learner rather than fixed time, content and contexts that characterise much of
our previous educational structures.
• High expectations – which is based on the premises that all students can
learn, success breeds success, and that schools control the conditions of
success. This principle means that the ‘bell curve’ system of assessment and
education is inappropriate and that criterion-referenced approaches are
relevant. It does not mean that content becomes unimportant, but there is a
concern for depth of understanding and high levels of competence.
• Design down – which means working back from the outcomes to design
relevant learning experiences that will develop the relevant skills and
understandings, and that will enable students to exhibit the required
performances. The Council’s sourcebook guidelines and modules explain
and model this process for teachers.
The Council’s initial in-service materials (1999, p. 10) reinforce these principles by
describing the principles of:
• a clear focus on learning outcomes;
• high expectations for all students;
• a focus on development;
• planning curriculum with learners and outcomes in mind;
• expanded opportunities to learn.
An exercise is presented on pp.11–12 that encourages teachers to reflect on what
teaching might look like within an outcomes approach.
How teachers might apply these principles is modelled in the initial in-service
materials (see Modules 5, 6 and 7). By engaging with the initial in-service materials,
and through the resulting professional discussions, teachers can work towards a
shared understanding of the principles and premises underpinning an outcomes
approach and what they mean to teaching practices.
So what is different?
Many teachers will recognise aspects of their current practice within the definitions,
principles and premises of an outcomes approach that have been described above.
For example, secondary schools have been using a criterion-referenced assessment
system for some time. However, proponents of an outcomes approach argue that
there are differences implicit within an outcomes approach that will challenge our
traditional approaches to school-based curriculum design, implementation and
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assessment. As Spady (1993, p. 1) asserts, we cannot just take our current
curriculum offerings and sprinkle outcomes around or on top of them.
Based on the work of Griffin (1998) the following section outlines some of the
differences between the traditional curriculum focus on subject matter and content
compared to a focus on outcomes.
Objectives, goals and outcomes
A variety of terms has been used to frame statements of educational intent including
goals, aims, objectives and, more recently, outcomes. Are they the same or are
there some distinctions that help to clarify how our teaching might be different?
They all have their derivation from a desire for educational practices to be
accountable — by specifying what it is we want students to learn, we can be held
accountable for the students’ learning. Brady (1996) and Willis and Kissane (1997)
acknowledge that the terms are often used in different ways and are even used
interchangeably. However, they attempt to differentiate an outcomes approach from
the typical approach in Queensland that has relied on an objectives framework.
Goals and aims are typically very broad descriptions of the long-term intent of the
whole curriculum or learning area. Examples include the National Goals of Schooling
(Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs 1999),
and the global aims from the Junior Health and Physical Education syllabus (Board of
Senior Secondary School Studies 1987). For example, the global aims from the
junior syllabus state that the subject provides experiences that enable students:
‘(a) to choose behaviours which promote healthy living; and
(b) to make informed, rational decisions as to their involvement in skilful physical
activities such as sports, dance and outdoor pursuits.’ (Board of Senior Secondary
School Studies, 1987 p. 2).
Although the term ‘objective’ has been used in a variety of ways and with varying
degrees of specificity, in Queensland we have come to understand objectives as
being used to describe specific behaviours that the student should exhibit after a
relatively short period of time. Indeed in secondary schools, they have been
categorised as content, process, skill and affective objectives and written for each
unit. They generally guide the teacher in planning learning experiences and tell what
is intended to happen. An example of a content objective might be:
• Students should be able to recall the facts and terminology of health-related
fitness.
This role of objectives is reinforced in the primary school HPE curriculum guide:
‘Having stated the specific lesson objective, the teacher’s function is to
select teaching material, and plan how to organise and present learning
experiences in such a way as to achieve the best results for each
individual in the class.’ (Department of Education, Queensland 1974,
p. 19):
On the other hand, outcomes tend to describe the results of learning and focus on
what the student will know and be able to do. In the Council’s syllabuses, outcomes
are organised into strands and describe a typical continuum of conceptual
development (six levels of core learning outcomes). The period of time required to
develop the understandings and skills is longer than for objectives (eighteen months
to two years).
To compare these characteristics, the Level 5.3 outcome from the syllabus,
Developing concepts and skills for physical activity strand states:
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‘Students devise and implement a health-related fitness program applying principles
of training.’ The statement is expressed in terms of demonstrable student
behaviours, which require quite a long period of time to develop, and incorporates a
range of cognitive, affective and process-oriented skills and behaviours. It is also
placed within a six level sequence of conceptual understandings related to the
concept of health related fitness.
The proposed differences between objectives and outcomes are summarised below:
Objectives
Outcomes
•
Describe the intent of teaching and
serve as organisers of learning
experiences.
•
Describe what the students know
and are able to do as the result of
learning.
•
Describe the specific behaviours
(e.g. content, process, skill and
affective) that the student should
exhibit after a relatively short period
of time (e.g. a unit).
•
View the student demonstrations in
a more holistic and integrated
manner. The outcomes are
described within a conceptual
continuum over a long period of time.
Instructional content
Traditional content-based programs have focused on how much work the students
need to cover within the timeframe (e.g. unit, semester or year). How many times
have we heard teachers frustrated because an excursion or school event takes time
away from the demand to cover the set content? Another common question is: ‘How
many chapters of the text book do we need to cover this term?’.
The primary school HPE curriculum guide (Department of Education Queensland
1974, pp. 7–9) outlined the major content areas of the physical education program –
health education, gymnastics, basic skills, athletics, swimming, dance and rhythmic
activities, adaptive physical education, fitness activities, and outdoor adventure
activities. Similarly, the Junior HPE syllabus (Board of Senior Secondary School
Studies, 1987, p. 12) described the requirements of the subject in terms of three
compulsory elements (Foundations of Physical Education, Health Education, and
Games and Sports) and five elective elements (Dance, Athletics, Gymnastics,
Aquatics and Outdoor pursuits). Time was specifically allocated to the Junior HPE
subject:
‘The minimum amount of timetabled school time…is 150 hours through Years 9 and
10’ (Board of Senior Secondary School Studies 1987, p. 12). The view of the
curriculum from these statements is of a discrete subject, requiring a fixed period of
time to cover a prescribed type of content.
Because the outcomes cover a broad band of schooling and because not all students
learn at the same rate, outcomes require a more flexible approach to time allocation
and content selection. Students will also demonstrate the outcomes through a wide
range of experiences (content and contexts), encountered over a longer period of
time. This is not to suggest that content is not important. However, an outcomes
approach does shift the emphasis to learning how to learn the content rather than on
specific facts and skills.
The proposed differences between a content-focused structure and an outcomes
approach in relation to the use of content are outlined in the table below.
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Objectives/Content focused curriculum
•
Involves estimating the amount of
material that can be learned in a
given period of time.
•
Usually uses a narrow source of
materials (textbooks or workbooks).
Outcomes approach
•
Requires a more flexible approach
to time allocation.
•
Uses a variety of text, media and
real-life materials based on various
learning styles. Students have the
opportunity to negotiate the way that
their learning develops and how it is
represented.
Teaching strategies
Griffin (1998) asserts that implementation of an outcomes approach requires a
reappraisal of approaches to teaching and learning, assessment and curriculum
delivery. One of the key changes outlined in the literature is to regard the role of the
teacher as no longer the focused source of information and learning. The teacher
becomes a facilitator of learning, and indeed a co-learner, since many sources of
information and learning contexts are encouraged in an outcomes approach.
For teachers in Queensland, the principles of effective learning and teaching
(Department of Education, Queensland 1994) have become a recognised framework
for promoting high quality educational experiences for students. These principles
also resonate with the principles of teaching and learning within an outcomes
framework. It is therefore tempting to simply overlay the outcomes onto our current
programs and teaching methods. However, while it is easy to reassure teachers that
adopting an outcomes approach is simply a matter of finetuning current practices,
Brady (1996) warns that it is not so simple. He sees the challenge as helping
teachers understand that an outcomes approach represents a new way of thinking
about schooling.
However, Griffin (1998) acknowledges that there are significant barriers to such a
change. Teachers are provided with few curriculum materials emphasising the
changes needed (system -level information), and resources still tend to emphasise
subject content rather than the processes that would enable students to actively
construct meaning of the content. School curriculum structures also tend to constrain
teacher practices, e.g. timetabling, traditional subject structures, the large number of
students that the teacher is responsible for, and time allocated to lessons.
It is also important to recognise that the role of the teacher is complex. The everincreasing curriculum pressures create a crowded curriculum, and the roles that
teachers are called upon to fulfil make it difficult to focus on the outcomes
themselves. In dealing with the challenges of an outcomes approach, it is important
to acknowledge such barriers but also to identify and engage in the enablers (e.g. the
syllabus support materials).
The HPE syllabus promotes a learner-centred approach to teaching and learning
(p. 6). This approach views learning as the active construction of meaning, and
teaching as the act of guiding and facilitating learning. Knowledge is viewed as ever
changing and built on prior experiences. The initial in-service materials (pp. 57–62)
explore the strategies of active construction of meaning, metacognition, making the
curriculum relevant to students, and cooperative learning as they are applied to the
key learning area.
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It is possibly in the area of teaching strategies that teachers will find the greatest
challenges to adopting an outcomes approach. Again, the initial in-service materials
(see Module 5) provide assistance for teachers in describing an inquiry-based
approach. This approach highlights the role of problem solving and decision making
in enhancing students’ understanding of, and ability to take action on, issues related
to health, physical activity and personal development (p. 46).
The proposed differences between a content focused curriculum and an outcomes
approach in relation to teaching strategies are outlined below.
Objectives/Content focused curriculum
Outcomes approach
•
The teacher usually selects the
content and teaching methods based
on previous or preferred practice.
•
The focus of teaching and learning
is on what the learner needs to learn
or demonstrate.
•
The emphasis is on the teacher as
a transmitter of specialised
information, usually relying on a
direct teaching style.
•
The teacher is a facilitator of
learning using a variety of
instructional techniques and groups.
Assessment
As stated previously, secondary schools have been using criterion-referenced
assessment techniques for some time. However, the focus for the assessment has
been on how well students have achieved the objectives selected for each unit.
Telling a student that they have attained a very low achievement, or indeed a very
high achievement, does not convey much information in terms of what they know or
are able to do.
Willis and Kissane (1997) suggest that in an outcomes approach, the accountability
question is not how well did students learn what was taught (the enacted curriculum)
or what was supposed to be taught (the intended curriculum); the question becomes
more focused on whether students have demonstrated the outcome. Assessment
practices within an outcomes approach are concerned with demonstrations of
student understandings and skills.
Again, a number of terms have evolved to describe such assessment including
‘performance assessment’ and ‘authentic assessment’. Generally though, the
intention of assessment practices is to measure students’ capacity to integrate and
apply their learning to complex and higher order tasks (Willis & Kissane 1997).
Within an outcomes approach, there is a call for students to handle real-life
problems, within real-life contexts, and the production of quality products and/or
performances.
One of the implications is that teachers will rely less on regular pencil and paper tests
which tend to focus on recall of information, and more on complex, problem-solving
tasks that require students to apply skills and knowledge within higher order cognitive
tasks.
The proposed differences between a content focused structure and an outcomes
approach in relation to assessment are outlined below.
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Objectives/Content focused curriculum
•
Assessment usually occurs at a
specific point in time (often at the
end of the unit).
•
Assessment is usually focussed on
how well students have achieved the
objective (eg VHA, HA, SA, LA,
VLA).
Outcomes approach
•
Assessment occurs over a period of
time, building up a profile of what the
student knows and is able to do in a
variety of contexts and on more than
one occasion.
•
Assessment focuses on more
specific indicators of the outcome
that describe what students know
and are able to do within the context
of the unit. If necessary, a global
judgement of student achievement is
made on an aggregation of the
indicators based on a ‘most like’
decision.
Conclusion
Teachers will certainly recognise many of their current practices with the principles
and premises of an outcomes approach. The challenge that confronts us as
teachers is to break the shackles that bind us to the more traditional views of
education such as teachers as information transmitters, content-based curriculum
that exists simply because it has always been done that way, fixed timelines and
timetables for all students, and assessment practices that rely on regurgitation of
information.
Simply sprinkling the outcomes on top of our current practice will do a disservice to
both students and the adoption of an outcomes approach. An outcomes approach
has the potential to provide a framework for teaching and learning that will meet
many of the calls for schooling to be student focused, relevant, promote deep
learning and complex thinking, and to cater for students’ needs in an ever-changing
society. Confronting us all is a need to review our current teaching and learning
practices and to deal with the challenges that are embedded within an outcomes
approach.
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References:
Board of Secondary School Studies 1987, Junior Health and Physical Education,
Brisbane.
Brady, L. 1996, ‘Incorporating curriculum outcomes into teaching practice: Learning
from literature’, Curriculum Perspectives, 16 (3), pp. 25 to 33.
Cumming, J. 1998, Outcome-based education: Ideas for professional development,
Australian Curriculum Studies Association, Canberra.
Department of Education, Queensland 1974, Health and Physical Education for
Primary Schools: Curriculum guide, Brisbane.
Department of Education, Queensland 1994, Principles of effective learning and
teaching, Brisbane.
Griffin, P. 1998, ‘Outcomes and profiles: Changes in teachers’ assessment
practices’, Curriculum Perspectives, 18 (1), pp 9 to 19.
Hannan, B. & Ashenden, D. 1996, Teaching for outcomes: How and why, Curriculum
Corporation, Carlton, Victoria.
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs 1999,
Curriculum Corporation, Carlton, Victoria.
Queensland School Curriculum Council 1998, ‘Curriculum development for Years 1
to 10 in Queensland: Some key questions and answers’, Interlink, Number 11.
Queensland School Curriculum Council 1999, Health and Physical Education Years
1 to 10 Syllabus, Office of the Queensland School Curriculum Council, Brisbane.
Queensland School Curriculum Council 1999, Health and Physical Education Initial
In-service Materials. Office of the Queensland School Curriculum Council, Brisbane.
Spady, W.G 1993, Outcome-based education. Workshop Report No. 5, Australian
Curriculum Studies Association, Canberra.
Spady, W.G. 1994, ‘Choosing outcomes of significance’, Educational Leadership, 51
(6), pp 18 to 22.
Willis, S. & Kissane, B. 1997, Achieving outcome-based education: Premises,
principles and implications for curriculum and assessment, Australian Curriculum
Studies Association, Perth.
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